New Tech Demo Shows How Borderlands 3 “Might Look Like”

Gearbox Software showcased a new tech demo at the Game Developers Conference last night, revealing new shading and lighting techniques that the developer hinted may be used in a future game.

“We want to evolve this look for the future, to make it more natural and basically next-gen,” said CEO Randy Pitchford while highlighting the edge outlining used. He then talked about new tools that were made exclusively to provide the studio’s artists with more freedom and flexibility.

One such tool “allows the scene to simulate in real time as time of day changes or conceivably we have different physics, if we, for example, were to explore different planets. There might be different physics, and the sun and the moons might be in different positions than we’re used to on Pandora.”

Pitchford made sure to point out that the tech demo isn’t a teaser for a game and neither does it feature any portion from one. The sole purpose of the tech demo is to showcase how the studio evolved its techniques from the past games in the series.

Nowhere did he mention Borderlands 3 or if it will look similar to what was shown in the tech demo. However, we already know that Gearbox Software is working on the game, Pitchford having confirmed that last year. Though, there is the possibility that it might not even be called Borderlands 3.

“This is not a video game; this is a technology demonstration of some ongoing research and development at Gearbox Software,” he said. “Some or all of the technologies that I demonstrated may be utilized by future Gearbox Software video games.”

While addressing fans, he promised that news about their next project will be revealed soon. Perhaps we’ll finally get to hear about Borderlands 3 at E3 2017.